The Palin Conundrum

The question being debated in my Sarah Palin’s WTF Moment thread: Can she do it? Can Sarah Palin somehow be able to go over the heads of the MSM, (a la Reagan) and win over the fickle independents, many of whom believe the media narrative that she’s a dangerous loose cannon, and a ditz?

The answer: I don’t know. Before Mike Pence bowed out, I was hoping she would spare herself (and us) the spectacle of what will turn out to be all-out bloody warfare between herself and the left, the media (but I repeat myself), and the elites within our own party.

Commenters, trying to talk me into a Palin candidacy have been making some great points.

Saber says Palin is the woman for this epic battle:

Sarah is Sarah and Ive known her for years and my wife is friends with her in Alaska. You folks are dealing with something that America has not seen in many years, a true patriot and a woman who grew up on the frontier. She is more then a master of a pithy soundbite, she is a master of Blood sports and she tells the WHOLE truth and to those who have wallowed in the world of PC induced socialism her words sound harsh. Wake up before we do not have a country for yourselves to be nice in. Look around you, who excites the American people, who does the heartland love, who is the left afraid of most…Sarah Palin.

Quinn says:

We’ve been pointing out that any actual conservative in her shoes will get demonized to hell and back by the media. You say you already know this. Okay, great.

But the difference is, 99% of the time when the media does this – it works. And it works -completely-. The conservative in question simply disappears off the face of the earth one way or another. Remember Fred “no fire in the belly!” Thompson? He would’ve been a freaking magnificent President. And can you think of anyone with -less- “fire in the belly” than the candidate we wound up with? Doesn’t matter. The media began the meme, even conservatives fell for it, and now…. when was the last time you heard from Fred?

You think their campaign against Sarah has been too successful for her to run. I think it’s exactly the opposite – they’ve thrown EVERYTHING they have at her – really, what else could they do? – and she’s still in a very solid position, with a large base of very devoted fans. That’s remarkable. And add to that that the left’s attacks on her have now gotten so over the top (which they won’t need to be with other conservatives) that it really -is- turning a lot of people off to the left and getting her a fair amount of sympathy. That’s also invaluable. Nominate her, and the left will implode in its attacks on her by revolting everyone with their mysoginistic dripping hate. THAT’S what’ll get the independents to either vote for her or stay home.

So, in summary: You seem to think Sarah is “damaged goods”, that the damage she’s taken has been too great. I think it’s the opposite – she’s endured the left’s savagery better than anyone else I can think of possibly could. Save maybe Reagan, and when you find another one of him, we can discuss this again, but until then – she’s easily the most resilient conservative we’ve got. ANY other real conservative you can think of will be completely destroyed in the minds of everyone before they’ve suffered 10% of the venom she’s taken.

My response:

Quinn, you mentioned some of the powerful plus sides of a Palin candidacy that I fully agree with.

She has “fire in the belly”. She doesn’t shrink from a fight – in fact she seems to relish it. And yes, they have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at her, and she’s still standing. If 1/3 of the guys in congress had her guts we’d be in a much better position, today. (I had this very same conversation with Smitty, last year at CPAC).

Did you see Eric Cantor shrink when grilled about the “birther” issue last Sunday on Meet the Press? Heaven help us. Palin took an amazing amount of heat for answering the question honestly in Dec, 2009, (if you have time do click on link and read the comments – very entertaining-ed.) when it was much more un-PC to talk about it. Now, even Tingles is asking about it, and these guys still can’t find the stones to deal with it.

Pawlenty couldn’t even “stand up” to defend Palin against the vicious Tucson smears when asked about her cross-hairs map. He’s another one off my short list. Republicans need to man up and recognize when the media is engaging in pack behavior, and call them out on it. Aren’t there any strategists in DC who know how to handle the media? Total stoneless wimp submission to the BS isn’t a winning strategy.

The thing is, I’m looking at the handwriting on the wall, and thinking she’s sustained too many hits to be viable at this point.

If you can explain to me how she wins over the middle, most of whom appear to be back in Obama’s camp, I will change my mind. I understand these people are fickle. Many of them won’t make up their minds until they’re in the voters booth.

Sarah Palin said she would jump in if she thought there was a need – meaning there were no conservative fighters in the mix.

With Pence out, that just may be the case. Herman Cain is a fighter, but unfortunately he has never held elective office and that would be a negative for a lot of people.

So it may just come down to Palin. Which is why she should listen to my advice. Don’t give the Jackals scraps to feast on. (And please stop saying “lamestream media”!) That, I can guaran-damn-tee you turns a lot of people off.

The danger is the undecideds who may have some sympathy for her will grow so tired of it, they will decide to vote for Obama to avoid more drama.

In it, he discusses how the left has been using the same tactics they’re using against Sarah Palin for over 60 years:

When liberalism mutated into an ideology in the wake of the New Deal, it also adapted the “enemies” mindset of its model ideologies, fascism and communism. No longer was politics the grand democratic game. Opponents of liberalism were enemies of progress, of justice, and of the People, deserving no consideration or mercy. The old rules of decorum and civility went out the window, replaced with any below-the-belt move that worked.

Until recently, Sarah Palin hewed closely to the Reagan method, dismissing attacks with a joke and a smile (even when such slanders were aimed at her disabled infant child, a display of personal strength that would inspire anyone not blinded by ideology). She needs to return to that method. She need not comment on attacks of this level. She has no deep personal flaws such as Nixon’s neuroticism or Gingrich’s egotism, and she will not experience any similar downfall.

Palin also has something else, something not possessed by previous targets. She has a following. All previous figures had their admirers, and Reagan led a movement. But none had or has what Palin has — a large group of people who look up to her, who view her as an example and a role model, who bleed when she bleeds and hurt when she hurts. It is those people who should be left to handle Palin’s attackers.

We conservative bloggers don’t mind getting a little dirty fighting these swine, but she really needs to remain above the fray.

The new technologies, together with the political will embodied in the Tea Parties, offer us a means of breaking this squalid liberal tactic and restoring a sense of balance to the political debate. It is never a good thing when a political party has access to non-political means to achieve its goals. The liberal Democrats have been abusing their exclusive access to media for close to sixty years. It’s past time they were pulled up short.

And I respond:

Lily, JR Dunn has his finger on the essence of the problem – the media.

Now the question is – between now and the election, can conservative activists go over the heads of the MSM and somehow reach those people who don’t pay much attention to politics..Those folks who believe what they’re spoonfed by the MSM. That’s the stumbling block…that’s the thing I don’t know how we do.

I’m trying to think within the framework of what is currently possible.

And that’s where we’re at. We have from now until election season to figure out how to undo the media narrative that has already hurt her in the eyes of too many, and to somehow win the info wars in the months to come.

And she also needs to win over elites within our own party who don’t think she has “gravitas”.

I welcome your ideas.

Matt says:

Imagine Katie Couric’s face on a billboard, with a line like ” Is she biased? ……Who does she vote for?” If we take the fight to the media figures and CAN expose them as untrustworthy conduits of information, would this be an effective strategy? What if it had a website at bottom of each billboard with excellent links to videos demonstrating their bias….this would have to be extremely professional and well documented….

Tim Pawlenty totally merits consideration. Sarah fan though I am, the Left continues to pile up the negatives on her and poison the well. Sure, it’s intellectually dishonest, and we’ll support her as far as she decides to go, but there it is. The lying bastards who go on about ‘fairness’ are themselves the least fair of the lot. Did Shakespeare predict her coming triumph? I don’t think so, either, but maybe the Bard knew something we do not.
In contrasting Sarah to Tim, I’m deeply respectful of both people for their courageous stands in the face of dishonest opposition. Pawlenty’s book recalled the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, and the media frenzy to connect conservative policy to the tragedy. Maybe Sarah and Tim can flip a coin to see who occupies the upper portion of the ticket.

I guess Smitty can join me among the ranks of those who are no longer “true conservatives”.

As for Pawlenty, I’m willing to take another look at him. I probably shouldn’t be judging him so harshly based on his weak responses to the MSM, re Palin. But it did seem like a disturbing harbinger to me.

51 thoughts on “The Palin Conundrum”

And she also needs to win over elites within our own party who don’t think she has “gravitas”.

A bigger challenge than convincing the middle. That is a battle that we on the right need to have sooner or later, or the GOP will be forever consigned to be “the other side of the Coin” to the Democrat’s bright and shiny lies, rather than a clear and distinct alternative to creeping nannystatism, and the eventual surrender of everything to a mendacious kleptocracy that will make most banana republics seem like amateur thieves.

While much has been written about her, and why the Left continues to pick at her like a little kid with a scab they just won’t leave alone, I am not settled in my own mind what is really going on.

I understand that she reveals every lie that feminism has told in the last 40 years, and her very treatment at the hands of those who pay the loudest lipservice to “equality” and feminine ability has been more revealing about their true nature than anything Palin could have said, but at the same time, I can’t remember when observers could have been reasonably mistaken into believing that Palin and not the grumpy old guy was the candidate in the last election. I don’t think there has ever been such scorn and vitriol focused through the media at someone who doesn’t even hold office. That all leaves me to ponder whether she is a powerful political figure because of who she is, or because that’s what she’s been made to be by the self-appointed deciders. It all leaves me with a distinct feeling that we’re being B’rer Rabbitted here, despite the fact that I genuinely like her, and think that she would be a good leader for the country.

That all leaves me to ponder whether she is a powerful political figure because of who she is, or because that’s what she’s been made to be by the self-appointed deciders. It all leaves me with a distinct feeling that we’re being B’rer Rabbitted here..

I think Sarah Palin has a lot of great qualities: her values are core conservative American; she’s a natural leader; she doesn’t dither around – she gets things done; and she cuts through the BS to get to the point. But she’s weak on policy. That’s a toughie.

Some of the problem lies at her own feet. She shouldn’t be answering every single charge. She has more than enough surrogates to do that for her.

She should be concentrating on policy positions. I would like to know what she would cut to reduce the debt. We all know that the spending has to stop, but very few are standing up and telling us what and how deep the cuts will be. She may win over some people if she does that.

I also really wonder if people really want the “girl next door” for president. I know that I couldn’t do that job. So do I want someone just like me running the country? Heck no. Gravitas does matter. We want someone that will represent us on the world stage, be nimble enough to change when necessary, and be desicisive when it comes to the very hard choices that anyone in that job will face. That isn’t an easy task and we are seeing first hand what happens when the person in the job doesn’t possess those qualitites.

Geoff, any of your posts would be fine. I’m leaving for the weekend in a couple of hours, so I would appreciate the assistance. I’m bringing my computer, of course, but expect light blogging from me for the next couple of days.

****** Lily, JR Dunn has his finger on the essence of the problem – the media.

Now the question is – between now and the election, can conservative activists go over the heads of the MSM and somehow reach those people who don’t pay much attention to politics..Those folks who believe what they’re spoonfed by the MSM. That’s the stumbling block…that’s the thing I don’t know how we do.

I’m trying to think within the framework of what is currently possible.**********

The MSM — and how to tackle them while they are aiding and abetting the reelection campaign for Pres. Obama for 2012.

Answer: Imagine Katie Couric’s face on a billboard, with a line like ” Is she biased? ……Who does she vote for?” If we take the fight to the media figures and CAN expose them as untrustworthy conduits of information, would this be an effective strategy? What if it had a website at bottom of each billboard with excellent links to videos demonstrating their bias….this would have to be extremely professional and well documented….

I think she gets the spending problem, and I don’t think someone who made the decision to sell the gubanatorial jet will have any problems identifying where the spending needs to be done away with. As someone who has had to live in the real world, I don’t think she’ll have any trouble identifying and fighting for American interests, and I remain convinced that a real conservative is far better equipped to be a leader for all Americans, rather than specific dependencies constituencies. I think we’d be far better with her than with a policy wonk who has let years of exposure to bureaucratic lunacy shape and warp their opinion based on what they think will make their life easy, rather than what is best for the country.

“I also really wonder if people really want the “girl next door” for president. I know that I couldn’t do that job. So do I want someone just like me running the country? Heck no.”

Great example of how low expectations for women in general feed into doubts about Palin in particular. Why on earth couldn’t the girl next door be a brainiac or a fantastic manager? I personally think I could do an adequate job as President. So could a lot of people. Most likely including JACG. (Not Obama, but then he is a special sort.)

I believe in the citizen legislator and the citizen executive. It’s just a 4-year term. Anyone with good intentions, a work ethic and a healthy dose of common sense should be able to keep the ship of state afloat that long.

Abraham Lincoln was the tall lanky kid who borrowed books from neighbors. Bill Clinton was the pimply faced teenager from down the road who had a pickup truck with a carpeted bed. Why not the girl next door?

“But she’s weak on policy. That’s a toughie.”
This statement makes me wonder if people (commenter included) have actually been reading the numerous articles Sarah Palin has written the past 2 years. She has addressed many policies, conservatively and clearly. She has actually been strong on policy.
I actually won someone over to considering SP as a possible viable candidate by sending them her articles. They were able to read for themselves her substantive policy ideas. She has distinguished herself as the opposite to Obama. That is why I paid attention to her, No other R was doing this as consistently as she was, they all seemed wimpy for a very long time. That was very revealing to me.
I think ND’s questions are important, and I am thinking about them a lot.
Thanks ND for providing the forum to discuss these issues.

It doesn’t matter who is nominated. They’re going to be savaged.
Look at Bush. His domestic policy was pretty much what the Dems would have loved if he had a (D) after his name, and yet, he was 3 steps worse than Satan crossed with Cthulhu crossed with Tom Cullen (m-o-o-n spells Tom Cullen, laws yes).

I like Palin because of what she does to Minitru.

I would say she’s a better VP, ala Cheney.

Cheney’s job was to say reasonable things in such a way as to drive Minitru absolutely foaming at the mouth crazy.

When normal people read what he actually said, they thought, “Well that makes sense. Why are your panties in such a bunch?”
Give her some time as VP and then she can go for Pres.

Plus, I really want to see her debate Biden again. I think last time she was unprepared for how readily he lies.

Whenever he’s backed into a corner, he lies. He just says whatever he thinks will make him look good.
When asked about abortion, he’ll say something like”Well, as we all know, Bush vetoed the “Don’t kill babies bill” that Obama and I introduced”.
The moderator wasn’t calling him on it and Palen just didn’t seem prepared to respond to his blatant, ridiculous lies.
She needs to find her own variation on “Well, there you go again Joe”.

There is one potential candidate, and only one, who has both the courage and the resilience to face down the Old Media, and that is Sarah Heath Palin. She proves it daily, and her marvelous family is right there in the trenches with her.

If you want someone who’ll start to back and fill when the questions get loaded and the insinuations get personal, pick any other Republican. If you want a candidate who” speak truth and shoot the arrow straight no matter what forces align against her, it has to be Palin.

No, I couldn’t be an effective president. It isn’t that I think I am too stupid, it is that I would have a hard time making life or death decisions on such things as putting our troops in harms way. I wouldn’t want that responsibility. I will continue to have opinions on the right or wrong of it, but those opinions are easy to have when your sitting in the cheap seats. It is completely different when you have to be the “decider”. You can’t just pick someone off the street to be the President of the United States. That is what we have now. How’s that working out for you?
My objections to a Palin run have nothing to do with her. I like her and her positions. I think she has a role to play. She can fire up the base like few others. My objections are can she sway the middle? I live in an area that is pre-disposed to vote for democrats. My congressman is horrid man that even many democrats can’t stand but continually wins re-election because people won’t vote for staunch conservatives. The republicans in this area always seem to pick a conservative to run against him, saying they don’t want another middle of the road republican. He has been in office for 20 years.
I bring up Palin to people around here and they have a viseral reaction. They HATE her. Most of the objections they have of her aren’t even based in reality. They have not looked at her resume and they will not in the future. She can’t win them over. Their minds are made up. Some of them still don’t realize that some of the quotes are from Tina Fey. If they are still linking her to a skit from two years ago, do you really think that she can change that?

People have a view of what our president should be like. That view changes depending on the individual person, but they have something in their minds eye. Someone who is so devisive from the get go isn’t in most people’s mind eye. We have major problems to solve in this country. Why would people vote for someone that they believe is going to cause 4 years of gridlock and controversy? Many independents voted for Obama because they wrongly believed that he was the one to solve some of these major problems. He was going to end the vitoral surrounding the Bush presidency.

I have no problem voting for woman, matter of fact I would love to see a woman get the job. I just don’t think she is the woman who can win the election. I don’t have a dim view of her, I have a dim view of the squishy middle. I don’t think they will give her a chance. Deb is right, she needs to stop with the Lame Stream Media comments. She is unfairly attacked, I believe that many see that. But, they don’t like her reactions to it. Someone told me that they thought she is immature. This person voted for Obama, the first time they voted for democrat in more than a decade.

Questioning Palin’s electability is not something that makes you less conservative, it makes you realistic. I don’t want four more years of Obama. I don’t have confidence in the courts to get rid of Obamacare. If it is not repealed in 13, we are stuck with it forever. The tentacles will go too deep to reverse if we have to wait until 16. If she wins the nomination I will happily go out and knock on doors and make phone calls. But I truly believe it will be in vain.

There is one potential candidate, and only one, who has both the courage and the resilience to face down the Old Media

We know that. But how do you wage war against people who “buy ink by the barrel”, as the old saying goes.

That’s the conundrum. We can fight back as best we can, here, but as 2008 proved, we’re only preaching to the choir if our voices never make it out of the RW blogosphere.

If you want someone who’ll start to back and fill when the questions get loaded and the insinuations get personal, pick any other Republican. If you want a candidate who” speak truth and shoot the arrow straight no matter what forces align against her, it has to be Palin.

True enough. And they opposition researched her to death in 2008.

But what they have in their favor is the impression in too many heads (after 2+ years of non-stop bad press) that she’s stupid, and unqualified.

If she decides to run, we have to somehow combat that. And I’m trying to figure out how. (see first paragraph).

What a situation we are in. I so admire Sarah Palin and think she has withstood more than most of the other front-runners all put together. Maybe weak on foreign policy, but what other candidate is equipped to handle the media with charm, smarts, and be a teflon-guy or gal like Palin? Regan pulled it off… and lost his share of races.

I’d rather Mike Pence, but he’s not running. If she does get into the race and wins the primary, I sure hope that conservatives back her at all costs. We have got to stop eating our own. The lefties love when we do that.

It will be good if conservative organizations like the Tea Party — who in their true sense are committed to hold to staying out of campaigning and endorsing candidates — will complete the processes currently being set up to compare and vet candidates on the issues.

If folks can see clearly how candidates stand and have performed on the principles and issues that we hold dearly, then maybe the best candidate can emerge like a no-brainer.

I simply do not trust the media to even begin to do this and hope that more and more people start seeing these libs for what they are — hateful, bent on destroying what we hold as precious, and simply not smart enough to know what is best for America.

I’m okay with that. I've been in the Tea Party for close to two years. We just keep moving ahead with the very same message, no matter what they call us or how they respond. And we are WINNING. I want someone who can roll up sleeves and not worry about getting 'savaged' if necessary. Wars are not won by wimps.

The libs want us to fear them… and they can smell fear. Palin is the closest I've seen to someone who can be fearless… Governor Jan Brewer and Michele Bachmann demonstrate it too. Some come close and then buckle under pressure… I have no desire for those folks to lead me until they grow a set.

Can we stand next to our choice and go fearless into this battle? I sure hope so, because I believe that everything — yes everything — we hold as precious is at stake here.

Except he was happy to talk down the candidate chosen by the voters of Delaware rather than using his expertise to help and maybe teach her to be a better candidate. It isn’t his conservatism I question; its the underlying current of elitism.

I got a lot of respect and admiration for you Nice Deb.
Truth be told it is not the MSM that will keep Sarah Palin from being elected, it is all of the people such as yourself who have written Sarah off who will tip the balance.
Please take this in the light given. I mean not to disrespect or denigrate you, in fact I hope the opposite is understood.
You see, Sarah Palin believes in something, she believes it so badly she is willing to do whatever it takes. Sarah Palin is the only public figure out there capable of being POTUS who truly has our backs. She has weathered every kind of vile hateful thing imaginable just short of direct physical violence and hasn’t even blinked. Do you think it is time all of us had her back? If we decide like yourself Sarah is a lost cause then the left has decided the outcome 2 years in advance and they have won the war of hearts and mind. And your words helped them do it. What are you thinking? You gave up is what I think. Be honest Nice Deb, its not a fire in the belly thing, all the other possibles are a compromise in far too many respects, right? (In contrast we got ourselves an out right fucking coward and pathological liar, not to mention he is not a legitimate legal president, overtly destroying America.)
Where is your fire in the belly Nice Deb?
You got yourself this fine blog, these great Americans who admire you, a grapevine the likes of which the world has never seen, you consider yourself a patriotic American part of the Liberty movement. You got resources a coal miner from West Virgina like me would die for to use to pass the word and get the message spread. But right now you are pissing and moaning about the MSM. Well you might not realize this, but the MSM got you right where they want us all.
The hell with the MSM, the mealy mouthed pundits, the elite class and the hateful SOB’s who are doing everything to kill this great nation. You got power you haven’t realized Lady. You got allies and compatriots in the blogsphere you are wasting. You better spread the Gospel my fellow American, or there won’t be an America for you or me.
It is time Nice Deb to step up to the plate. Time to buck it up Woman. Put your money where your mouth is and stick up for a beautiful honest courageous steadfast American who believes in you and I with all her heart.

What we’re trying to figure out now, is, if she decides to run, how does she go over the heads of the media who hate her? How do we convince a huge swath of our fellow citizens who have a settled negative opinion of her, that not only is she not a ditz – but she’s qualified to hold the most powerful position in the world?

That’s what this thread is about. It’s not about what you or I think.

If you have any ideas, I’m all ears. Because as things stand right now, this looks like a losing proposition.

After the 2008 election, the right-leaning Washington Examiner learned through a records search that 88% of the campaign donations made by network news employees, including writers, producers, reporters, and executives, went to Democrats. Just 88%, huh?

Not coincidentally, a Harvard study conducted during the 2008 election found that 47% of the print and broadcast stories about Barack Obama were overtly positive vs. only 12% positive for John McCain, while the Washington Post’s own ombudsman acknowledged that Obama received three times more front-page coverage than McCain, and that reporters went over the top in their scrutiny of Gov. Palin compared to then-Sen. Biden. Fair and balanced, my friends!

And file this under the obvious, but a Media Research Study further confirmed the bias, studying every mention of Barack Obama since his appearance on the national stage in 2004, concluding:

The networks downplayed or ignored major Obama gaffes and scandals. Obama’s relationship with convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko was the subject of only two full reports (one each on ABC and NBC) and mentioned in just 15 other stories. […]

The networks minimized Obama’s liberal ideology, only referring to him as a “liberal” 14 times in four years. In contrast, reporters found twice as many occasions (29) to refer to Obama as either a “rock star,” “rising star” or “superstar” during the same period.

In covering the campaign, network reporters highlighted voters who offered favorable opinions about Obama. Of 147 average citizens who expressed an on-camera opinion about Obama, 114 (78%) were pro-Obama, compared to just 28 (19%) that had a negative view, with the remaining five offering a mixed opinion.
For the longest time, I never understood conservative complaints about media bias. I was blissfully unaware of liberal media bias, much like a submerged fish is blissfully ignorant of the presence of water. That is, of course, because I was liberal. And a journalist.

Why is it, in fact, that so many journalists are liberal?

I have to go back to my own training and career in journalism. I was raised in a conservative-leaning home in Northern Utah, by Mormon parents. Then something radical happened. I went to college and decided to major in journalism and political science. Each of my journalism and political science instructors even at a red state public university were hardcore liberals. Many of my classmates, and best friends in college were liberal. I came to adopt the assumptions and worldviews of those around me. I don’t think my experience is unique.

What is it about journalism that attracts — and breeds – liberals?

For one, I’d have to concede that journalism is not a mainstream major or career. It’s akin to majoring in art history or sociology. When you tell most “normal” people you’re majoring in journalism, they immediately give you a look of complete pity and apprehension, as was the case when I told my mother that I planned to become a newspaper reporter. She asked: “Can you make a living doing that?”

No doubt, Mom, a savvy businesswoman, was doing the math: There is usually only one newspaper and very few broadcast affiliates in town, and what if they’re not hiring? Where do you find a job in journalism? Wouldn’t you have to live in a major city and move around quite a bit? And aren’t journalists notoriously poorly paid?

Indeed. Of course Mom was unaware of the myriad writing positions available in trade journalism or technical fields, which is where I ended up, quite by accident, writing feature articles for business trade publications for 15 years – not a bad career, although some journalism majors wind up going to law school or returning to academia, which I considered as well.

Because I wrote for Wall Street publications, later earning an MBA, I was exposed, perhaps more than most journalists, to the entrepreneurial spirit of true capitalists, not to mention a slightly higher pay scale. That gave me a fighting chance to overcome my radical liberal instincts (which I finally kicked in 2004). I think my traditional moral views — ever at odds with the Democrat party — also played a role in my “conversion” to conservatism, along with the fact I was married to a pro-life Catholic, and lived for a decade in America’s heartland.

Looking back at the journalists I’ve worked with over the years, however, most remain in their liberal bubbles, surrounded by likeminded liberals, convinced that they alone are doing idealistic work for the mythically oppressed – sometimes even as they “sell out” for media-related jobs in corporate America. They often wear their distain for Republicans, capitalists, corporations, the military, and organized religion on their sleeves, as if religious Republicans or the American military are the source of all oppression and injustice. Hey, we’re all products of our prejudices.

Even the business press is not immune. The last editor I worked for refused to let our staff portray Social Security negatively or refer to its ponzi scheme characteristics. He must be doing his best to cover up news that Social Security is now running a permanent deficit. I am so not missing being under his thumb.

In journalism school, Republicans are viewed largely as caricatures: heartless and greedy, and as always attempting to shove religion down people’s throats by opposing legalized abortion.

If you step foot on any major college campus, you will gain an insight into why journalists are liberal. Colleges bring together large numbers of people who run to the ideological left. Indeed, universities (especially humanities and communication departments) are havens and hotbeds for people who don’t fit in ideologically with the larger community or the center-right country at large. They are mini-Berkeleys and Haight Ashburies.

And so are newsrooms. For three years, I worked for a daily newspaper in Logan, Utah – one of the most conservative cities on the planet. But you’d never know it from the newsroom, which was filled with environmental extremists, hardcore feminists, and leftover 60s radicals. This small-town newsroom was so disconnected from the community it served, it still blows my mind. It was like a time warp. Outside the newsroom it was 1990 … Inside, 1970. Newsrooms, in general, are filled with iconoclasts, curmudgeons, and cultural rebels, even in small towns – and perhaps, especially in small towns. While a whopping 80% of my community was Mormon, I can only recall two reporters out of a dozen or more I worked with who were active members of any faith, let alone the predominant religion. I would dare say 80% of the newspaper staff was either agnostic or atheistic, especially among the editor ranks. Most of the staff, in fact, were secular East Coast and Upper Midwest transplants who flocked to Utah for the outdoor environment, not the cultural landscape.

Why the disconnect? Why don’t more conservatives go into journalism? Why are the devoutly religious severely under-represented in newsrooms?

I think it’s because conservatives have tended to pursue more traditional careers, jobs that pay better or that would lend themselves to family life in suburban or rural settings — closer to home. Even Governor Palin was forced to give up her career in sports journalism for family life. She no doubt would have had to relocate from Alaska to pursue her dreams of working for ESPN. She would have had to have been willing to move wherever the job took her, and that, often, I believe influences the transitory and cosmopolitan nature of the newsroom. So few of the people covering the “locals” are themselves “local.”

For whatever reason, journalism is still not the cultural equivalent of a career in accounting. Journalism is predominantly of, for, and by liberals – a career for those who either eschew normalcy, lean urban, or prefer the counter culture, kinda like a career in graphic arts or jazz.

Will this ever change?

Not likely. Especially as newsrooms are increasingly hit by economic reality. But I think we’ve reached a tipping point. I think it is now liberals who have become the establishment, and conservatives are the new rebels. Liberals dominate the culture: schools, media, courts, entertainment, some churches, and most of the federal government. How can they claim to be counter cultural when they run the culture? Moreover, just as fish don’t notice water, liberals in newsrooms don’t notice when nearly nine out of ten of their colleagues share their same liberal world view, the same view they perceive as “mainstream.”

We may very well see a conservative Woodward and Bernstein emerging from the right as a new generation rebels against their Baby Boomer predecessors. The pro-life and Tea Party movements are fertile ground for young conservatives to rock the liberal establishment.

That being said, thankfully, liberal journalists have lost their monopoly power on information. We may never see a rightward shift by the “mainstream” media. But conservative consumers are voting with their feet, their ears and their eyes – getting their news elsewhere, including talk radio, Fox News, and the blogosphere, where conservatism thrives.

As much as it pains me to say this about my former colleagues, I long for the day when much of the liberal “mainstream” media is rendered irrelevant, a footnote in history, an aberration in the long flow of human communication. I long for what Dan Calabrese at North Star National sees as an impending Berlin Wall moment for the mainstream media.

To those in my profession who still cling to the notion they are fighting a protracted battle with the “oppressive” right, I invite them to examine their own ideological pathology: are they projecting their own demons onto an entire group of people with whom they disagree? Are they still rebelling against their conservative parents or fighting the conservative church they were raised in? Isn’t this new generation of leftists simply regurgitating the nostalgic talking points of failed 60s radicals?

The best way to combat the liberal media is by going around them, ignoring their pathological hatred for all things conservative. This is what Governor Palin does, and it drives them batty. She defies their attempts to classify and caricaturize her as a dangerous “other” … when she clearly represents the common sense, balanced views of most Americans.

For much of journalistic history in this country, newspapers were balkanized into political categories. In the late 1800s, opposing party papers battled it out on equal footing. That is why we still see legacy papers with names such as The Fresno Republican or Hunterdon County Democrat. The notion of media “objectivity” is a relatively recent phenomenon coinciding with the emergence of radio and TV news, and a pure myth, at that.

In an ideal world, nobody would believe in media objectivity. We would have enough ideological competition among news providers that bias wouldn’t be a problem. Because biased reporters would not be able to pass themselves off as objective, as MSNBC attempts to do when its unhinged liberal commentators are allowed to host election night coverage. Even Fox News, much-maligned by liberals, doesn’t surrender its news coverage to hardcore partisans, unless you think mild-mannered Brett Baier qualifies as a rightwing flamethrower.

My goal is to shatter the illusion of objectivity far and wide, to affix a metaphorical consumer warning label on liberal news. Nobody should sit down to watch the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, for instance, expecting to receive “objective” information from a radical pro-abortion Upper West Side Manhattan liberal. And the Associated Press might as well rename itself the Angry Progressive for its role in defaming conservatism. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a list of all the “reporters” with their backgrounds and political contributions right out in the open? If a reporter like Rachel D’or of the AP wants to pass herself off as a legitimate reporter, we should paste a warning label to every one of her articles, exposing her ties to radical environmentalism.

Perhaps if she runs for president, Governor Palin could start calling liberal reporters the “Obama Media.” I like that better than “lamestream,” in fact. Nobody should suffer the illusion that they’re not his paid shills. In Obama, they have the ultimate radical realization of all their counter-culture dreams. He is the “mainstream” vision of liberal bliss. With anger simmering just beneath the surface, Obama is the media. Just as he cynically pretends to be a centrist, they pretend to be objective – while sending their money to the cause.

I say bring on the revolution. We in the conservative blogosphere don’t pretend to be centrist. We don’t pretend to be objective, though we do traffic in facts. And we can pursue our writing from the hinterlands, children in tow, loosed from the media’s Coastal urban groupthink. The new media is gonna drain the murky swamp, and leave the Obama Media “fish” out of water, exposed and gasping for breath.

Which is what aging rebels should expect. Everything old is new again, right? The times, indeed, are changing. Spread the news!

How do we convince a huge swath of our fellow citizens who have a settled negative opinion of her, that not only is she not a ditz – but she’s qualified to hold the most powerful position in the world?

The first move would be to have her hold a serious debate with Tina Fey. If she could crush Ms. Fey (and I don’t doubt she could), that would completely undermine the picture the Left has painted of her.

I’ll tell you this, if Romney, Pawlenty, Newt or Huckabee get the nomination, we will lose.

My dad, a belly gunner in WWll, used to say he knew when he was over the target because they were drawing fire. Are any of the above named getting anywhere the kind of fire that Sarah gets? The left is screaming that they are scared to death of her.

And when they do, what a bunch of mealy mouth drivel we hear from them. They actually are seeking approval from the very media that will tear them a new one if they get the nomination. How soon we forget 2008. We nominated just who they wanted and BINGO, front page bullshit about McCain’s private life.

Sarah was out there in the bush with us working for candidates in the mid terms. Where were these assclowns?

Sarah knows the media will savage her and will go around them. Hell RR did it plenty with no internet and just about all of the media in liberal control.

It’s a sad fact we’re even debating this because it tells me that you’ve let the left dominated media live in your head. If you really believe that someone who thinks Sarah is stupid but will vote for Romney, it’s hopeless.

It’s so obvious she’s the one true conservative candidate with the balls to stand up for our values. When we run a true conservative, we win. For too long we play along with their GD narrative, it’s time to end that and push our own tried and true policies. No more of this dem lite crap when we have power. No more compromise.

We need to have this fight in 2012 and no one else is up to it but Sarah. For once and for all, let’s put the hammer to this pREgressive curse. She will draw the lines better then anyone.

Having been a brain-dead lefty until age 40 who then converted to Conservatism after watching from my NYC apt an attack of war on 9-11-2001 (educated by David Horowitz-The Freedom Center, Rush Limbaugh, Victor Davis Hanson, Mark Levin and Dr Thomas Sowell) I will point out that Sarah Palin WILL win because she has already twarted the one successful tactic in the Democrat playbook (as outlined by JR Dunn)

NiceDeb (I do not read your blog so I do not know where you are coming from and frankly do not care-you seem very nice but you are not the issue so do not make this about you)

Your analysis brings this question immediately to my mind (as a recent convert who once believed that Reagan was a warmonger who caused AIDS) :

Perhaps Conservatives have grown so accustomed to being beaten down that we’re so easily willing to give up before the opponent is even in the game?

The issue is not about pleasing Moderates, or Media or Middle class or Nice Debs or Smitties, or Saints or whatever, the issue is about Conserving the US Constitution, defending rights of the Individual against an ever intruding Collectivist state, standing for Liberty vs Tryanny.

Nice Deb- as David Horotwiz and Tammy Bruce often point out “THe Left is vicious”. If Conservatives wish to roll over then we are to blame for the downfall of our great Nation.

I see lots of talk about a Herman Cain race; I think the man is fantastic however if any Conservative has some thought that he will be able to twart the Democrat playbook will not see the first hit coming, a media portray him an Uncle Tom, he will be eviserated just like Clarence Thomas. And these attacks will
come before Democrats investigate every nook and cranny of his life, dugging out any dirt he may have hidden in his closet.

None of us can say that Cain has no dirt since Democrats have yet to start digging; we know for a fact that Palin has been dug deep even by the most foulest of highly devouts digging demonically inside her uterus!!!

If Hermain Cain had started his campaign a year ago he might have had a chance but he is late and will be destroyed; when this happens WE WILL NOT HAVE THE TIME TO REPAIR THE DAMAGE DONE TO HERMAIN CAIN!!

Please do not miss the obvious point-Sarah Palin is already ahead of the democrat’s game, not behind like all the other Republican candidates.

Please do not be afraid to fight for what is good and right.

Do not lay down and die because you are fearful; get up and fight for your FREEDOM!!!!!

And about those in ‘the middle’, your friends, your families, your loved ones, your neighbors who are apparently your betters.

What does it say about those in ‘the middle’ whose blind hatred towards a woman who has done absolutely nothing to warrant such vile inhumanity supercedes the all the looting, pilliaging, plundering, violating and raping of you, of your individual liberty, of your RIGHTS ENDOWED BY OUR CREATOR?

And further, what does it day about those who defend the blind hatred?

So if I am to understand where you are coming from it is that you are fine with your loved ones, your families, your friends, your neighbors continuing to do their looting, pilliaging and plundering of your Individual right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness just because you fear blind hatred coming from your family, your friends, loved ones and neighbors?

So if I am to understand where you are coming from it is that you are fine with your loved ones, your families, your friends, your neighbors continuing to do their looting, pilliaging and plundering of your Individual right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness just because you fear blind hatred coming from your family, your friends, loved ones and neighbors?

I’m having a WTF moment, myself, now.

Palin’s my ideal candidate, and I will of course back her if she decides to run, but I question her viability. How you get from that to – I’m for “the looting, pilliaging and plundering of my Individual right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness”, is beyond my ability to comprehend.

Your idea is; Palin runs, and wins, even though she has extremely high negatives, and an MSM that will not give her a fair shake. How about some ideas about how we manage to accomplish that, because I’m telling you, (and yes, I’ve read Horowitz, I also blog at NewsReal), it’s not looking like a promising endeavor to me right now, as things stand.

Americans have had two years to fall in love with Palin since 2008, and her approval numbers continue to drop. The only thing going for us is Obama’s approval numbers will drop, too as the economy worsens, but he doesn’t seem to be able to dip much below 40% no matter how egregiously he behaves or screws up. Ideas please. Ragging on me doesn’t contribute anything to the discussion.

RINOs get crushed because they can’t stand up to media. Pallin has not only gone toe to toe with these apparcheks but has beaten them. As for the Middle, you mean those undecideds who believed Obama was the second coming?

If you believe the media your IQ is somehwere below that of a carrot. Pawlenty couldn’t stand up to Franken, he’s supposed to be credible? I won’t even comment on Rommney. All ready we see the media and the RINOs parading the future Doles before us because Pallin can’t win.

Right, just as they told us Reagan was a racist, senile, idiot, actor, inexperienced old fool. If you can’t recognize the real thing vote for Obamao.

I’m sure you did last election and are wondering why you shouldn’t vote for him again. Maybe you ought to ask McCain to run again.

“What we’re trying to figure out now, is, if she decides to run, how does she go over the heads of the media who hate her?”

Well, to a degree that is her job, isn’t it? A candidate’s foremost obligation is to get out a message that resonates. If she can’t do that, she will not win any primaries. She is not beginning in the first-place spot and will have to campaign hard to win.

But its also our job as participants in the political blogosphere, a place that people increasingly turn to near election time to learn about the candidates, to push honest and truthful narratives of all candidates on our side. We can’t let the Left define us. We must define ourselves.

Part of that is refusing to buy into the Leftist narratives sch as “she can’t win”. Sure she can. There are several plausible avenues leading to a Palin win, the most obvious of which involves an international catastrophe and continuing domestic malaise. Any number of things can happen in 2 years, a lifetime in politics. If she’s as talented as her promoters believe she will find a way to communicate directly with voters and use the media hyperreaction to her benefit. If she does not she will not win the nomination. So now is really not the time to second-guess ourselves. Let that happen in another 7-8 months at least.

for me if always comes back to Palin. I cannot even imagine supporting anyone else. Whoever you think is better (pawlenty, romney, newt, huckabee…whatever) I’m going to be asking them WHERE WERE YOU in Jan 2011 when the LSM was blaming ME — not just Palin, but ALL conservatives, including the TeaParty, ME, and MY family when we *ALL* were being blamed for Tucson??
WHERE WERE YOU in the Fall of 2009 when we needed you to be sounding the alarm on Obamacare Death Panels??
WHERE WERE YOU in 2010 when the first lady declared war on cookies & suggesting the govt needs to tell us how to feed our own children?
WHERE WERE YOU in 2008 when the LSM said the Bill Ayers story is nothing, and only ONE voice questioned “PALLING AROUND WITH TERRORISTS?”
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
but Sarah has been as consistent about holding Obama’s feet to the fire; calling him out on his lies; and defending the military; Conservatives, and common American people?

WHO has been more vocal defending LIFE? Defending the disabled? Defending Freedom?
She is the one who is already doing the job of standing up for America? Sure, she is a lightning rod for leftists attacks. And the Pawlenty-Newt-Romneys are hiding behind her skirts, LETTING her be that lightning rod. I am not voting for a go-along-to-get-along RINO who is playing it ‘safe’ and ‘looking’ like presidential-material, while meanwhile SHE is FIGHTING the FIGHT.
If someone has done more to stand up for WE THE PEOPLE in the past 26 months, you tell me just who that has been, please.

Jane – the best candidate (to us), may not be the best candidate to beat Obama. And I’m telling you….WE MUST WIN IN 2012 or it’s all over.

We have to repeal ObamaCare before it gets its hooks into too many people. Obama is all about protecting the Dems’ “nest-egg”. He’s a dead serious Socialist. He did everything he could possibly do in his first two years to transform the nation into his Utopian vision, and now he’s going to coast along until 2012, letting the Republicans spin their wheels. After the 2012, comes the VAT tax and more to fund his atrocities. We can look forward to sky high energy prices less freedoms, and perhaps an irrevocably Socialist nation.

I’m not messing around, dammit.

I already know who I like the most – for the same reasons you like her. It’s nice that we appreciate all of Palin’s fine qualities.

How the bleep does she get elected when over 50% of the country hates her guts?

I do not read your blog so I do not know where you are coming from and frankly do not care-you seem very nice but you are not the issue so do not make this about you

How to make friends and influence people.

Hahahaha. I’ve known Geoff personally and face to face for years. He does not EVER think it is about him, for the record. He is an off-the-charts-smart geek who cares about our country. Maybe a look in the mirror could help you out when you make that comment.

Today marks the first day of Dana Milbank’s Palin-free month. I am very excited about it in the same way that the Governor herself is excited about it. She said, “I can’t wait to not get blamed for – at least for a month.” I’m also looking forward to not having to defend her for some 28 days.

Now I do know that some people suffer from Palin Derangement Syndrome (PDS) and going one month without attacking or trashing Governor Palin could be quite a challenge. In the spirit of civility and bipartisanship, we want to help you. Here’s a little remedy: Obama Derangement Syndrome (ODS)

For one month, treat Obama exactly the way you would usually treat Governor Palin.

Here are some suggestions, though you can surely come up with many of your own.

For one month, scrutinize everything the President, his wife and children say or do. For one month, make sure that every verbal error he makes becomes an international story. Report every rumor created by an anonymous blogger as fact and of course, do not report that the rumor was eventually proven to be a lie. After every speech or interview he makes, complain about how he missed an opportunity and pick one or two words you didn’t like and whine about it. Check the teleprompter for further input.

Go after his political record. Go after how he quit after two years in the Senate to campaign. Cover the fact that his party lost his own seat in the senate and report how he had no influence in his own backyard. Report how many of the candidates he campaigned for lost and how it’s all his fault. And God forbid if something bad happens, try to find a way to pin it on the president.

Elaborate on the huge mole on his face, the graying of his hair, his girly jeans, and for good measure, the amount of weight that he seems to have lost lately.

Find something terrible in every poll that comes out and report over and over again how bad it is. When he drops one point in the polls, proclaim his political career over. When it goes up, blame his supporters for being uneducated. When he doesn’t respond to criticism, complain that he’s not saying anything and when he does say something, accuse him of inserting himself into the story. Once in awhile, just ask him to stop talking; trust me that’ll be a winner.